ColdFusion writes...

Reading the archives it's apparent you believe Sevarius' theory that gargoyles absorb sunlight during the day while in stone form, reducing their need to eat like the huge beasts they are. I've wanted to point something out for years, but now you have to be really quick about asking questions before Ask Greg closes again.

The thing is.. unless I'm mistaken, Sevarius came into that theory because:
A. he had mutates to make, and gave them bat wings they needed to flap
B. he realized he couldn't keep 6-foot furries in the air on bat wings without them eating him out of house and home, and
C. he figured the answer was in how the real gargoyles did it.

When I heard him explain how he thought gargoyles got the energy to fly, I didn't believe it for a second. obviously he didn't do his homework, because gargoyles DON'T FLY, they don't -flap- at all, they glide effortlessly (more or less) on air currents, and that doesn't require flapping of wing muscles. So.. the sun-absorbing-stone thing isn't necessary (at least for the reason Sevarius presented. Of course now I've read that the reason you had gargoyles glide was so they'd require flying vehicles for kenner to build).

I realize that episode was kind of frought with bad science (electric eels produce electricity, so their genes mean you don't need as much food energy? ... and then whatever extra energy that presents they discharge as lightning bolts anyway?), and that it doesn't matter because it's just an animated drama and you wanted to give the mutates a cool weapon, but.. I dunno, I've been hearing you base your (mostly wonderful) theories on the assumption that sevarius was right, when he got such a major detail wrong in developing it.. it kind of bothers me.. I mean, if gargoyle babies need to absorb sunlight too, their parents should probably stop putting them in caves and buildings... maybe I'm just naturally distrustful of scientists. I mean, when sevarius said "unfortunately nothing like this exists in the animal kingdom so I can't go to the gene store and get some" my first thought was "that's because you pulled that answer out of your ass, gargoyles are more well-thought-out than that". I generally wonder when scientists put out an unprovable theory like that, how plausible they think it is that a person could come up with the correct answer to a mystery like that with limited evidence. No matter what they come up with, it's surely not very likely to be correct!

Wow, when did this comment turn into a ramble? Sorry, heh. Anyway, I trust what you say more than what Anton Sevarius says, and in my opinion you don't have to agree with him just because he's a scientist and you're not. the theories you come up with to explain gargoyle science don't seem to mesh very well with Sevarius, so... perhaps we ought to keep in mind that the gargoyles aren't aware of any of them anyway. Keep up the good work!